Devarim, or more commonly referred to as Deuteronomy here in the west, is the first portion of the final book in the Torah. Just under forty years have passed since Moses implored Pharaoh to let his people go and during that time miracles were witnessed, battles were fought and won, the Torah was birthed on Sinai, and excluding Moses everyone old enough to remember slavery in Egypt is . . . .well. . .dead. It should not come as a surprise that this week’s Parsha consists of Moses recounting the history of a forty year old nation to the next generation of Jews.

Moses knows his time is almost up and Devarim the parsha and the book exemplify this. Moses knows the importance of history and law and Hashem allows him another opportunity to dictate Halakah. Want a short version or just the gist of the core of Judaism? Read Devarim from [Read more…]